Yo! Sushi and B&B Burger and Beer Joint will open restaurants inside the Mall at University Town Center next week.

Yo! Sushi, a British chain of sushi restaurants, will open late next week, according to communication officials with the Mall at UTC. The chain of restaurants is known for delivering food to its customers on a conveyor belt. The concept is popular in other countries, including Japan and the United Kingdom.

The Sarasota location, which is one of the first to open in the United States, boasts an 280-foot long conveyor belt. One opened in Washington, D.C., but that has since folded. The company has plans to expand in the U.S. this year, including more restaurants in Florida.

The chain, founded in 1997, now serves more than 5 million customers a year in such places as Dublin, Sintra, Dubai and Kuwait. More than 70 restaurants are open across Europe and the Middle East.

B&B Burger and Beer Joint will host its grand opening party on Wednesday, April 22. This is the Miami-based restaurant chain’s fourth restaurant in Florida. B&B serves gourmet burgers and craft beer. The company took overa restaurant space formerly leased by Zinburger, a Phoenix-based wine and burger bar chain.

B&B is aggressively expanding, with plans for 29 new restaurants in Florida, California, New York, Washington D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

The Microsoft Store will open in the Mall at University Town Center on June 11.

The electronics and computer software retailer is opening three stores across the country in June. The two other stores are opening in New Jersey and Texas toward the end of the month. The retailer, which sells PC computers, tablets and accessories, competes directly with the Apple Store model but with Windows, Sony and other PC-related merchandise.

Taubman Center officials announced that Microsoft would open a 2,095-square-foot store at the new mall the day before the $315 million retail center’s grand opening in October. It is one of a handful of retail brands that have opened after the mall’s unveiling last year.

TheMicrosoftStore sells Microsoft software and third party company merchandise from brands like HP, Acer, Dell, Lenovo and Sony. The company operates seven stores in Florida, mostly in high-end malls like Orlando’s Mall at Millenia and Tampa’s International Plaza.

The first two Microsoft Stores opened around the Windows 7 launch in 2009 and the company has been expanding ever since.

The Sarasota store will be Microsoft’s eighth retail store in Florida.

Fit2Run, a fitness and running retail chain, Lucky Brand, a national retail that is known for its denim wear, and Vince Camuto, a designer handbag and apparel line, are slated to open stores inside the 880,000-square-foot mall at University Parkway and Interstate 75 later this year.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Cache is about to be the first store to shutter in the new Mall at University Town Center.

The dress retailer, known for its evening gown wear often popular at high school proms, is closing stores nationwide. The company filed for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. It plans to close more than 150 stores, including its brand new store in Southwest Florida, which opened in October.

Liquidation sale signs hang from the windows in the store at the Mall at University Town Center. Merchandise is marked off 40 to 70 percent this week. It is unclear when the store will shutter for good.

The company began in Miami in the 1970s selling formal wear to young women. Cache doubled its amount of stores in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it hasn’t turned a profit since 2011, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Cache is the first store to close inside the Mall at University Town Center, but not the first to break a lease. Tory Burch, a designer retail store, advertised on signs inside the mall that it was opening a store during the spring. The space is vacant and still available for lease.

B&B Burger & Beer Joint, a Miami-based restaurant chain that serves gourmet burgers and craft beer, took over a restaurant space formerly leased by Zinburger, a Phoenix-based wine and burger bar chain. B&B is expected to open this week.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

AT&T is opening a new store across from the Mall at University Town Center on April 4 that is unlike most other AT&T stores out there.

The AT&T “Store of the Future” format is designed to fit the needs of customers’ mobile lifestyle. Sarasota shoppers will be among the first to experience the new store concept which internet and phone provider, AT&T, has spent years researching before debuting the new format in cities across the country.

The first “store of the future” format debuted on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Sarasota is the fifth destination in Florida to get this kind of concept. AT&T operates these new stores in Tampa, Miami, Jupiter and Orlando.

The Sarasota store will open in the Benderson Development-owned plaza across the street from the mall near the Super Target.

“Customers visiting our Sarasota store will discover an interactive shopping experience built around their mobile lifestyle,” said Carlos Blanco-Sposito, vice president and general manager for AT&T Florida, in a press release. “Our goal is to be America’s premier retailer by providing an exceptional experience in every interaction, and we’ve been working hard to exceed customer expectations by taking our stores and network to a new level here in Sarasota.”

There are no traditional cash registers in the new stores. Instead, customers check out at round café-style “learning tables” with AT&T employees. Nor will shoppers find printed product brochures. Customers will interact with video monitors and other digital signage.

The store is designed for shoppers to experience it in three “zones:”

Connected Experience Zone features examples, like music, home security and entertainment, of how customers can use products in everyday life.

The Community Zone lets customers shop in an interactive space which displays apps, accessories and devices to show customers how they can work together.

The Explore Zone features “explore walls” that showcase AT&T’s devices and accessories with digital monitors that include product information.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

HomeGoods, a home furnishings chain, opened a new 20,000-square-foot store inside the Shoppes at University Town Center, a shopping plaza across from the new mall on Sunday.
The chain, under parent company TJX Companies, took over a space formerly occupied by Bealls Outlet. The space was extended by 8,6000-square-feet late last year. The store is located in the same plaza as Nordstrom Rack, Total Wine & More and Marshalls, among several other retailers and restaurants.HomeGoods operates two other locations in Southwest Florida – a store on Bee Ridge Road in Sarasota and another in Venice.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Free People, an American bohemian lifestyle apparel brand for women, will open its first store in Southwest Florida inside the Mall at University Town Center on March 20.

The 3,000-square-foot store is on the second floor in the Macy’s wing of the mall. It’s scheduled to open next week, becoming the company’s fifth store in Florida and the 104th in the United States and Canada. Other Florida stores include two in Miami, one in Tampa and another that is scheduled to open in Jacksonville this week.

The store in the Mall at University Town Center will sell apparel for women, intimates, swimwear and accessories.

Free People is a part of theUrban Outfitters retail umbrella and began as a single store in Philadelphia in the 1970s. As the original store’s popularity grew, the name was changed to Urban Outfitters when it came time to open a second store. Urban Outfitters operates three other separate retail brands: Anthropologie, Terrain and BHLDN, which together have more than 400 stores worldwide.

Retail reporter Justine Griffin caught up with Beth Wehagen, the director of retail for Free People, this week.

Griffin: So why the expansion into Florida lately, especially Sarasota?

Wehagen: Florida has always been an exceptional market for us and the three stores we do have – two in Miami, one in Tampa – have performed very well. We see customers driving crazy distances to shop at the brand, so it seems like the right thing for us to do is to open more stores in the state. The Jacksonville store opens tomorrow and we’re looking to open new stores in Fort Lauderdale, Naples, Orlando and possibly additional sites in Miami too.

Personally I’ve always loved the West Coast of Florida and have looked for real estate in the area for myself. The Tampa store has always done well for us and we are happy with how the brand resonates there. Sarasota seems like a natural fit for us. We’re a lifestyle brand that has a free spirited, easy going and creative nature. Our products tend to transcend age and we look to expand into communities that share those same kind of creative spirits.

I’ve been to Sarasota a few times now. The climate is wonderful and the beaches are beautiful. It’s a place where there’s a happy sense to people. We expect the brand to really come to life here.

Griffin: So tell me about the store opening in Sarasota.

Wehagen: We signed the deal while the Mall at University of Town Center was still under construction, so this store has been in the works for quite some time now. We’re opening 12 to 15 stores a year, so it’s all about the timing. If we could have opened this store sooner, we would have been thrilled to do so.

With the success we’ve had in Tampa, we wanted to open a larger store on the West Coast. The Sarasota store is almost double the size of the store in Tampa, which is in line with our brand strategy to continue to expand our stores. We’ll offer more lifestyle categories in this store and it will be the biggest we have in the state when it opens.

So the offerings we have for the customer, in general, is much more. The Sarasota store will have a large intimate section for under garments. We’ll offer a lot of variety, far more than what the store in Tampa or even Jacksonville will have.

Griffin: Tell me about the Free People brand for people who have never shopped there before.

Wehagen: Shoppers will see an interesting, layered environment inside the new Free People store. From the architecture to the display of clothing, it really is a visually stimulating environment. Free People is meant to evoke a lot of creativity, so we hope shoppers feel inspired when they walk into our store.

As a brand, we don’t reset our offerings every season, so shoppers who walk into a store on Monday and then again on Friday will see changes in a variety of the products we’re offering. It’s a fast moving fashion environment and we like to think we’re very different than other retail stores out there.

IF YOU GO: Free People will hold a grand opening celebration from 6 to 8 p.m. March 20. The first 50 customers will receive a free tote bag. Light refreshments will be served.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.